-
The largest pharmaceutical company in the U.S. is Pfizer, with a revenue of $100.33 billion.
-
As of 2021, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry has a market size of $560 billion.
-
Over 4.76 billion retail prescriptions were filled in the U.S. in 2022.
-
The U.S. pharmaceutical industry is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.3% through 2028.
“All press is good press” is an adage that doesn’t seem to necessarily apply to the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, it seems like the pharmaceutical companies stand to gain the most from keeping out of sight rather than making sure they’re seen and heard.
But even those who have issues with the existence of pharmaceutical companies have difficulty denying the fact that they provide a service that few others can — creating, testing, marketing, and distributing drugs across the world requires massive amounts of time, money, and infrastructure, which can make the barrier for entry into the pharmaceutical industry staggeringly high.
With so many people trying to get in on a slice of the pharmaceutical pie, we were curious — what are the biggest pharmaceutical companies in America today? So, using Google Finance data on market caps, we created our own list of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the US.
Here are the 10 largest Pharmaceutical Companies
-
Location: New York City, NY
2022 Annual Revenue $100.33 billionCompany Description: Founded in the mid-1800s by Charles Pfizer and his cousin Charles Erhart, Pfizer grew into the company it is today thanks to a number of pharmaceutical breakthroughs, such as the discovery of oxytetracycline (which is used to treat infections such as acne or chlamydia). In the intervening time, the company’s continued success and its many acquisitions have made the company what it is today.
-
Location: New Brunswick, NJ
2022 Annual Revenue $94.94 billionCompany Description: Consistently ranked as the largest pharmaceutical company in the US and the largest in the world, Johnson amp; Johnson was originally founded in the 1880s as a disseminator of surgical dressings. Today, the company owns over 250 businesses as part of the Johnson amp; Johnson “family” in medically-relevant fields such as medical technology, consumer healthcare, and pharmaceuticals.
-
Location: Lake Bluff, IL
2022 Annual Revenue $58.05 billionCompany Description: Another one of the largest pharmaceutical organizations in the world, AbbVie originally was one of two companies created by the splitting of the Abbot Laboratories company. Abbvie’s employees have conducted research into a number of different pharmaceutical fields, including looking for ways to treat diseases like Crohn’s disease, GARP, and cystic fibrosis.
-
Location: New York City, NY
2022 Annual Revenue $46.15 billionCompany Description: A pharmaceutical company located in NYC, Bristol-Myers Squibb was originally founded in in the mid-1800s by Edward Robinson Squibb, who was well-known at the time for his spirited advocation for better quality control standards in medicine. Today, the company stands as one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, with its market cap last year coming to $148.79 billion.
-
Location: Lake Bluff, IL
2022 Annual Revenue $43.65 billionCompany Description: The second of two companies created by the split of the original Abbot Laboratories in 2013, Abbot Laboratories keeps up with the diagnostic and medical technology side of the business while AbbVie took over the research side of pharmaceuticals.
-
Merck & Co.
Location: Kenilworth, NJ
2022 Annual Revenue $42.84 billionCompany Description: Beginning life as a small family-owned pharmacy in Germany in the late 1600s, the American wing of Merck (called Merck amp; Co.) was first nationalized in the early 20th century. Since then, the company has become one of the leading US pharmaceutical companies thanks to its ownership of drugs like Gardasil or Januvia. The company also made news in 2012 for discontinuing donations to Boy Scouts of America due to the Scouts’ policy of excluding new members depending on their sexual orientation.
-
Location: Indianapolis, IN
2022 Annual Revenue $28.54 billionCompany Description: Headquartered in Indianapolis, IN, Eli Lilly and Company is a pharmaceuticals company that has been in the Fortune 500 since at least 2008. It was the first company to mass-produce drugs like penicillin and insulin, and its insulin discoveries involving recombinant DNA have helped make the company what it is today.
-
Location: Kalamazoo, MI
2022 Annual Revenue $18.44 billionCompany Description: Another pharmaceuticals company in the Fortune 500, Stryker Corporation was founded in 1946 and is currently based in Kalamazoo, MI. Their main products involve implants, surgical equipment, endoscopes, and other medical devices.
-
Location: Tarrytown, NY
2022 Annual Revenue $12.17 billionCompany Description: Regeneron is a pharmaceuticals and biotechnology company focused primarily on research dealing with brain functions, such as the regenerative capabilities of neurons (hence the name). While their research has begun to branch out, they’re still focused on generating new technologies and distributing these technologies, along with life-saving drugs, to the people that need them.
-
Location: Cambridge, MA
2022 Annual Revenue $10.173 billionCompany Description: A pharmaceuticals company originally founded in Switzerland in the 1970s, Biogen eventually merged with a US-based company called IDEC Pharmaceuticals. Now based in Cambridge, MA, Biogen has drugs that treat a wide variety of sicknesses including hemophilia, multiple sclerosis, and psoriasis.
How We Did It
Using Google Finance, we were able to find a list of the biggest pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the world based on their annual revenues for the year 2022.
From there, we removed all companies that weren’t based in the US, as well as all those that were focused on biotechnology rather than pharmaceuticals.
That left us with our final list of the biggest pharmaceutical companies based on 2022 annual revenues.
Does your company make the top ten? Read on to the full list to find out.
Pharmaceutical Industry FAQ
-
Which organizations can approve new drugs in the U.S.
The Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) is the only organization that can approve new drugs in the U.S. The FDA has different processes for over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription drugs.
The FDA will approve active ingredients and provide parameters for certain types of drugs for OTCs. Some OTCs don’t even need FDA approval. On the other hand, prescription medications need to be thoroughly tested and approved before they can hit the market.
-
Who were the scientists who helped create the modern U.S. pharmaceutical industry?
Charles Pfizer, Charles Erhardt, and Eli Lilly were scientists who helped create the modern U.S. pharmaceutical industry. Pfizer and Erhardt started a pharmaceutical company in Brooklyn, New York, in 1849 and started selling antiparasitic drugs, and after World War I.
Eli Lilly started his company in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1873. His company developed the first gel pill capsule, revolutionizing how drugs were packaged, extending their shelf life.
-
What is the largest pharmaceutical company in the U.S.?
The largest pharmaceutical company in the U.S. is Pfizer, with a revenue of $100.33 billion. Pfizer was founded in the mid-1800s by Charles Pfizer and his cousin Charles Erhart. When they first started, their company started producing and selling citric acid, gluconic acid, and ascorbic acid.
Wrapping Up
That’s all for this one, but there’s more to see here at Zippia.
Are you a recent college graduate on the hunt for a job? Find out how to answer the interview question “what gets you up in the morning?”
Or are you looking for more articles like this one? Check out which small colleges are the best in Illinois.
Author
Ryan Morris was a writer for the Zippia Advice blog who tried to make the job process a little more entertaining for all those involved. He obtained his BA and Masters from Appalachian State University.
